Spring: new plants, new flower essences and new adventures

Coming soon: Dark Moon Essences - Aussie Edition

Spring is always a busy time here at Herbcraft HQ. It's the time where we spend countless hours, days, and weeks weeding, sowing seeds, preparing the garden beds for all our summer veggies, and making sure we have everything we need for harvesting, preserving and making products from our harvests. In that sense, this year is no different. What is so exciting about this year though, is that it's the first time since 2019 that I'm not undertaking any formal study. This means I have so much more time to do the things I love... being out in the garden, sowing extra seeds for the greenhouse, and planting more tomatoes than I have done in quite a few years. We're also expanding the amount of seedlings we are growing to get a more solid foundation in the local medicinal herb market, both for plants, and herb.

And whilst this alone would be more than enough to keep me busy, I'm so excited about being accepted to speak at the Botanica Obscura Conference in March of next year. At the risk of wearing my heart on my sleeve, I can't think of a more fitting entrance onto the interntional stage for someone like me. For more years than I care to count, I've simply not been able to find my place in the professional world. My ideas and methods have had me slamming my head against brick walls for as long as I can recall. I just never seemed to fit the pre-approved mold that was expected of an herbalist/naturopath/homeopath, or other natural medicine practitioner... every effort I made was only met with frustration, as it seemed that no formal education existed to teach the material I so desperately wanted to learn, nor did I know where to find an audience wanting to learn the material I'd spent a lifetime accumulating. The major turning point for me, was finding a number of incredible occult practitioners in the US and UK that were on the same wavelength, and willing to share information that I'd sought for so many years, and subsequently discover that I had information and resources that interested them too. Who knew that they would be as excited to have an Aussie bogan chick presenting at their conference as I was to participate?

In considering the topic for my presentation, I thought about what meant the most to me when it came to my herbs... that is, knowing them, in full, in every way possible. I so often look at the contemporary perspective of herbal medicine, and it saddens me, and frustrates me too, that even in the past 30 years alone, that the spectrum of how herbs are taught, has become so narrow that we no longer have the capacity to understand much of the old ways, because there is no-one to teach it. The hyper-focus on science-based education is valuable in many ways, it certainly has great benefits in some aspects. Unfortunately, it has eliminated the aspects of herbalism that are less proveable, less understood, and less measurable by men in labcoats. This not only disregards aspects such as energetic modalities, animism, and the contributions of astrology and moon cycles in germination, harvesting and manufacture, but also reduces the scope of the individual herbs by dividing education into separate modalities, so that any practitioner remaining within their scope of practice is often unaware of a whole range of applications for an herb that they may use regularly. My aim is to open up a discussion in this regard, and encourage practitioners, private or professional, to consider the incredible benefits that can be gained from this broader perspective. Essentially, I'm really excited to have the opportunity to provoke a greater depth of understanding of our plant allies.

Ironically, it has been specifically requested of me to incorporate my Australian native bush medicine knowledge. This also gave me pause. The vast majority of my herbs, and products I make, are those of specially cultivated non-native plants, not unlike the majority of practitioners here in Australia. And, unlike herbaists in other countries, we are not really taught much about the plants of our own continent. We lack the mass of empirical evidence for Australian natives, but also the in-depth research that takes place with more commonly known Chinese, Ayurvedic and European herbs. Whilst unfortunate, this opens up yet another opportunity for discovery and experimentation, which I have commenced by adding to my Dark Moon Essence collection, an Aussie Edition. We are also in the process of incorporating some of the incredible Aussie medicinals into some forthcoming salves and other products. It's a very exciting time, where innovation is overflowing!

Traditional copper Alembic for essential oil distillation

We are also incredibly blessed to have been gifted a stunning traditional copper alembic to distill our own essential oils and hydrosols, which is winging its way from New Zealand as we speak. My journey with essential oils began at the tender age of 16, when I attended a presentation by "In Essence", the only company selling essential oils in Australia at the time. I was immediately hooked. And though my involvement with aromatherapy waxed and waned through the years, my love for them certainly has not. The opportunity to increase the awareness of some of the most delightful aromas found in some of our native plants has me simply chomping at the bit! And although this will not be my first commercially available line of essential oils, it will be the first that I will be producing with my own hands. I hope too that this once again affords me the opportunity to re-educate those who have taken to the habit of ingesting these highly potent substances, and guide them toward safer options.

So we're certainly busy, with no end in sight, but it's been such a motivating time for me! I am so very grateful for the opportunities I've been granted, and for the future direction Herbcraft is moving toward!